Call for participation for Imagining America 2012 National Conference

‘Linked Fates and Futures: Communities and Campuses as Equitable Partners?’ is the conference theme, Oct. 5-7 in New York City

Slashed budgets, debt burdens, speculation unchecked, diminished access, narrowing measures of worth. Without support for a reorientation of values and realignment of priorities, higher education and community organizations committed to a just, equitable and fully participatory vision of the world face a challenge to their most cherished ideals and in some cases, their very survival. Against these forces of unequal benefit, induced scarcity and reduced expectation, this is a moment that calls for a bold and ambitious voicing of where our desired future lies and how we will get there.

The 2012 Imagining America conference, to be held in New York City, Oct. 5-7, is an occasion to reflect critically on the shared predicaments of democratically oriented, cultural work in higher education and community-based organizations; to articulate languages and practices of possibility; and to develop and strengthen cross-sectoral networks committed to moving such work forward.

The conference, co-hosted by Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute at Columbia University, New York University and The New School, is grounded in approaches and experience of the arts, humanities and design drawn from both academic and community knowledge—which is at once local, national and global.

The IA conference will explore where campus and community fates are linked and how theory and practice, aspiration and action can be fruitfully entwined. Sessions will embody multiple formats for public engagement that integrate different ways of knowing, foregrounding the role of humanities, arts and design. Integrating insights from community, education and policy, three large thematic areas will be explored: “Full, Equitable Partnerships”; “Linking Diversity and Engagement”; and “Arts, Culture, and Community and Economic Development.”

Imagining America invites work in dialogue with one of the above themes, and in the arc of the conference. The overarching framework of the three-day conference brings together New York City-based programming with initiatives taking place around the country. All proposals should take this framework into consideration and place their own work in dialogue with the locally generated themes.

Running through all of the above, IA invites sessions that articulate the role of youth, and welcome a cadre of proposals that do not fit in this framework but nevertheless advance engaged theory and practice through open and critical dialogue with other conference participants. IA is particularly interested in proposals that contribute to ongoing areas of interest to our members, namely engaged practices in humanities, arts and design as they intersect with: the environment and climate change; public health; incarceration and re-entry; feminism and feminist activism; faith/spirituality; and international engagement.

Visit IA for more about conference session themes and formats, or a PDF is available for call for participation details and session formats. The submission deadline is Monday, April 23. The conference submission platform will be available beginning on March 19 from the IA site.

Based at Syracuse University, IA is a national consortium of 90 colleges and universities whose mission is to animate and strengthen the public and civic purposes of humanities, arts and design through mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships that advance democratic scholarship and practice.

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